The most retweeted Tweet by local Twitter users had nothing to do with landmark happenings like Crazy Rich Asians or the Trump-Kim Summit. It was, however, Very Singaporean — an incident that included elements such as the pressures of education, technology, crafty ingenuity, and lending a hand to someone in need.
Twitter user @nrsyazwana now holds the title of having Singapore’s Golden Tweet in 2018 for her pretty amusing encounter on online marketplace Carousell. Syazwana had put up a Social Studies textbook up for sale, a listing that attracted an interested party. But the buyer had no intention to buy, really — he simply left his textbook at school and desperately needed her to send him pictures of a couple of pages, probably for some schoolwork.
hahahaHahhaa taking carousell to the next level #carouhell pic.twitter.com/i8RqODnJrW
— syazwana (@nrsyazwana_) January 15, 2018
He would have gotten his friends to do it, but they were all sleeping already, he messaged her.
OK LA BUT ISTg damn smart, i’ve never thought of doing this before Hahaha pic.twitter.com/22ptKmrUWB
— syazwana (@nrsyazwana_) January 15, 2018
As bizarre as the experience was, the incident struck a major chord with Singaporeans, both familiar and bemused by the crafty lengths one would go to avoid getting into trouble at school. Syazwan’s tweet earned nearly 30,000 retweets and 150,000 likes, as well as a shoutout by the Ministry of Education, which praised her for being a good Samaritan.
Other findings
Twitter also revealed what else Singapore was abuzz about this year, and we don’t know if we should feel glad or sad that Hallyu Wave (the global tsunami of South Korean culture, really) trended higher than the historic meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here. What was interesting though was that there was a huge spike in tweets per minute (5,200) when the two shook hands for the first time.
Other interesting revelations: #ndp2018 was the fourth-most tweeted hashtag in Singapore this year — more so than #MeToo, lead by conversations held by gender equality advocacy group AWARE.
Can’t leave without mentioning local Twitter celebrity Xavier Lur, whose top retweeted tweet of the year showed the two ways one would eat nonya kuehs. Layer by layer like a sane soul, or chomp through everything like a savage.
2 different types of people pic.twitter.com/LtloxT38bc
— Xavier Lur (@xavierlur) June 3, 2018
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